Diethylhexylphthalate (DEHP), acting as an endocrine disruptor, disturbed reproductive health. Here, we evaluated the effects of Lactobacillus plantarum TW1-1 ( L. plantarum TW1-1) on DEHP-induced testicular damage in adult male mice. Results showed that oral supplementation of L. plantarum TW1-1 significantly increased the serum testosterone concentration, enhanced the semen quality, and attenuated gonad development defects in DEHP-exposed mice. L. plantarum TW1-1 also alleviated DEHP-induced oxidative stress and inflammatory responses by decreasing the mRNA expression and serum protein concentration of different inflammatory factors [tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6]. Furthermore, L. plantarum TW1-1 significantly reduced DEHP-induced intestinal hyper-permeability and the increase in the serum lipopolysaccharide level. Gut microbiota diversity analysis revealed that L. plantarum TW1-1 shifted the DEHP-disrupted gut microbiota to that of the control mice. At phylum level, L. plantarum TW1-1 reversed DEHP-induced Bacteroidetes increase and Firmicutes decrease, and restored Deferribacteres in DEHP-exposed mice. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that Bacteroidetes, Deferribacteres , and Firmicutes were associated with DEHP-induced testicular damage. In addition, the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes (Firm/Bac ratio) significantly decreased from 0.28 (control group) to 0.13 (DEHP-exposed group), which was restored by L. plantarum TW1-1 treatment. Correlation analysis showed that the Firm/Bac ratio was negatively correlated with testicular damage and inflammation. These findings suggest that L. plantarum TW1-1 prevents DEHP-induced testicular damage via modulating gut microbiota and decreasing inflammation.

BackgroundMillions of people rely on N95 filtering facepiece respirators to reduce the risk of airborne particles and prevent them from respiratory infections. However, there are no respirator fit testing and training regulations in China. Meanwhile, no study has been conducted to investigate the fit of various respirators. The objective of this study was to investigate whether people obtained adequate fit when wearing N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) used widely in China.MethodsFifty adult participants selected using the Chinese respirator fit test panel donned 10 common models of N95 FFRs. Fit factors (FF) and inward leakage were measured using the TSI PortaCount Plus. Each subject was tested with three replications for each model. A subject was considered to pass the fit test when at least two of the three FFs were greater than 100. Two models were conducted fit tests before and after training to assess the role of training.ResultsThe geometric mean FFs for each model and trained subjects ranged from <10 to 74.0. The fifth percentile FFs for only two individual respirator models were greater than 10 which is the expected level of performance for FFRs. The passing rates for these two models of FFRs were 44.7% and 20.0%. The passing rates were less than 10.0% for the other eight models. There were 27 (54%) participants who passed none of the 10 FFRs. The geometric mean FFs for both models when the subjects received training (49.7 and 74.0) were significantly larger than those when the same group of subjects did not receive any training (29.0 and 30.9) (P<0.05).ConclusionsFFRs used widely in China should be improved according to Chinese facial dimensions. Respirator users could benefit from respirator training and fit testing before using respirators.

Our results suggest that the training status and needs of China's rural doctors are still disjointed; measures including the introduction of remote education and clinical further education, extended training time and more clinical skills training should be adopted.

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Depression and related mood disorders are among the world's greatest public health problems. Previous studies have demonstrated that astilbin (AST) has broad pharmacological functions which may modulate numerous pathways, such as antioxidant, scavenging free radicals, anti-inflammatory and so on, similarly to some of other flavonoids. In this study, the antidepressant-like effect of AST was investigated using chronic unpredictable mild stress ( Key words depression; astilbin; chronic unpredictable mild stress; serotonin; dopamine; brain-derived neurotrophic factor Depression is a serious medical illness that characterized by affective disorder. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by the year 2030, depression will result in more years of life lost to disability than any other illness.1) At present, most antidepressants used clinically with low efficacy and many side effects can not meet the clinical needs. Therefore, with the increased prevalence of depression and social burden every year, the development of new antidepressants is becoming a top priority.Despite the fact that the molecular and cellular mechanisms remain unclear, a leading hypothesis of depression recently suggests that neurotrophic factors and adult neurogenesis play critical roles in mediating the behavioural responses to antidepressants.2) The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is closely related to neuronal survival and neurogenesis and plays an important role in animal models of depression. Various stress procedures including chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) result in obviously decreases of BDNF expression in the brain, while chronic administration of almost all kinds of antidepressants including imipramine regulates BDNF levels. [3][4][5] The extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) and AKT pathways are the two important downstream signaling pathways of BDNF. It has been reported that some of new antidepressants under development upregulate the expression of BDNF in different brain regions of stress mice via promoting the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and AKT and thus activating the ERK, AKT pathways to produce antidepressant effects. [6][7][8] In recent studies, natural flavonoids especially resveratrol, tea polyphenols and curcumin show attractive prospect in the field of neural protection research.7,9,10) There is growing evidence indicated that flavonoids ameliorate the symptoms of depression via upregulating the levels of monoaminergic neurotransmitters 11) and promoting the expression of neurotrophic factors. 12,13)